Jinchuriki Ahoy!
by Ashimnotatree
Summary: Naruto got fed up with the way jinchuriki are treated in the Elemental Countries. He's getting out and he's taking them all with him! But he may have bitten off a little more than he can chew once he sees exactly what's across that ocean. New enemies, new challenges and new battles to fight; is the rest of the world ready for Naruto and the others?
1. Prologue

**So started this a good while back but my laptops been a bitch recently and not working all that well. I will update my other stories soon but I want to get all the other things I typed up posted first. Also, this won't be getting to the One Piece world til later and with me getting to my last couple of years of school don't expect me to update too rapidly. This is yet another crossover because those stories are way fun to write. This is going to be a fiction with all the jinchuriki I think. Might not work out but oh well.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned ninjas and pirates I would do way more interesting stuff with my spare time.**

A little blonde boy was staring at a map of the world. He was sitting on the windowsill of a darkened room, reading by the light of the streetlights outside, he couldn't be much more than four years old. His eyes gazed intently at the large landmasses covering the page. The little boy's eyes roamed over the lands only to be drawn inexplicably to the ocean bordering the top edge of the map. He frowned.

"Still awake, Naruto-kun?" an elderly voice asked from the doorway.

The blonde boy jumped in surprise and turned towards the open and brightly lit doorway revealing brilliant blonde hair and cerulean blue eyes in a small face with six dark lines gently curving over his cheeks, now identifying him as Uzumaki Naruto. He laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I couldn't sleep 'cause the man and lady in the floor below me were having a wrestling match. So I came to see you and then I saw this awesome picture and I was wondering what it was."

There was a moment of silence before Naruto leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "I think the man was winning."

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled indulgently at the innocent boy in front of him.

"That is a map of the world, Naruto-kun. This part here is Hi no Kuni where we live..."

Sarutobi continued pointing out all the countries on the map and telling Naruto little snippets of information about them so that he would remember them.

"Jiji? That's the ocean right?"

A small hand pointed to the top of the map where there was an empty space of water. The volume of the water was expansive and had large picture of waves on it, signifying that it was an area with large storms.

"Yes, Naruto-kun. It is a very large ocean with powerful and dangerous storms that few attempt to cross."

The little boy hummed. "Jiji?"

"Yes Naruto-kun?" asked Sarutobi, happy as he was that the boy was showing his intelligence for once, he was very tired and wished to go to bed.

"What's beyond the ocean?"

"No-one knows; there hasn't been a successful attempt to cross it."

The little boy turned back to the map staring at the dangerous ocean contemplatively. His head was so full of the images of the dangerous ocean that he barely noticed the elderly Hokage ruffling his hair as he was left in front of his apartment door. He opened the door carefully, waiting to see if there were any traps set whilst he was out. Thankfully, there was nothing. He'd learnt to not take the locked door for granted as an indicator that no-one had been in. A kunai set to fly into your face would do that to you.

Sighing, he checked around his apartment. Even though it hadn't been rigged to try and kill him, it was trashed. His furniture was ruined, all the good food was spilt over the floor and paint was splattered over the walls. Picking his way across the food smeared kitchen and overturned furniture in his living room, he made his way to the bedroom.

He sat down on his bed and thought a little more. An ocean huh? What was on the other side? Was there more in the world than the Elemental Countries? Maybe there were islands out there with people that didn't know of them like they didn't know about the rest of the world.

Naruto grinned. It sounded interesting. And wouldn't it be awesome to go down in history as someone who made the discovery of a whole new world out there! Not getting to play with other kids, being the village pariah or even coming home to an empty apartment would be worth going down in history to be remembered in hundreds of years to come. But if he wanted to make it across, he would have to get much smarter. He'd need to know how to keep his stuff safe, how to provide for himself and how to take care of himself. Not to mention he'd need to take care of the other people he'd travel with.

Naruto nodded to himself. Alright then! The time to play idiot to himself was over, from now on it was study and become capable and then when he was ready, he could come back and try to become Hokage for the old man's sake.

Look out world, cause soon will come the real Naruto!

**So, that was the prologue. Naruto is still going to have been dead last in the academy because it would be in his interest to stay at the bottom, the less people know about his abilities the better. He will know Medic-nin techniques because someone in the eventual pirate crew needs to and Naruto's compassionate side would make it more likely that he would want to heal people than the other jinchuriki. **

**Next chapter will be a major timeskip to the day after the Sand/Sound Invasion arc. I need to make a reason that Naruto will leave so the story will be pretty different.**


	2. Flee from Konoha

**Timeskip! So now we are one day after the Sand/Sound Invasion orchestrated by Orochimaru. Naruto is intelligent and fairly strong in this but he had to hold back in the academy otherwise he would've been in pretty serious danger. Also, because he's been hurt so much by other people in the past, he will enjoy hurting others a little more than the average person. He will definitely mess with people's minds just because he can and will occasionally seem a little cruel. **

**Just so you know, it's gonna take a while for Naruto and the other jinchuriki to get to the One Piece world as Naruto's got to collect all the other jinchuriki.**

**He knows his history and all the other purely academic stuff and he has good aim and a few jutsus but he won't overpower everyone and win all the time. There may be minor character bashing in this first chapter but the characters won't stay in the story for too long I've never character bashed before so I don't know if the stuff I write will count as it. I actually like the sand siblings but in order to actually get the story to go where I want it to I may have to bash them a little bit.**

**Disclaimer: Nope, don't own. If I did, I'd get rid of all the useless characters. **

Naruto stormed through Konoha snarling to himself. What had he been thinking? Of _course_ the council would declare _Sasuke_ the one who defeated Gaara and make him a Chunin. Why had he thought he would get positive attention for _saving _every single miserable person in the Goddamn Village again?

And the nerve of Gaara's siblings! Hitting him whilst he's down and declaring that Gaara made them do it because he was a jinchuriki so they would get away unscathed. The worst part was that Naruto wasn't even surprised. Infuriated, yes. Wanting to grab them and shake them until they apologised, hell yes. Surprised that they used a Jinchuriki for their own benefit and left them for dead, no.

That was it, Naruto decided, staring moodily at the sky whilst standing in the training ground he was tested with Team Seven on. The whole world, no the _Elemental Countries _was stuck in the belief that Jinchuriki were monsters, weapons, stepping stones for their own entertainment, punching bags or objects to be used for their own benefit.

'_I have to get out of Konoha and never come back. I'll take Gaara with me and we'll find a way to escape this discrimination against us. History states that the Kyuubi has had at least one Jinchuriki before me, would the same hold for Shukaku? Actually, if there are Jinchuriki for the Ichibi and the Kyuubi then there must be ones for the other Biju too. Now where did the Shodaime give the other Biju to again?' _Naruto pondered as he changed direction and went to visit Gaara in the T&I building.

Ignoring the sneer of the secretary and the jeers of the guards, Naruto walked through the door to the cells where dangerous prisoners were kept with his bright and wide smile making his eyes into thin slits between eyelids. He waited a few moments after closing the door, looked left and right and sent a chakra pulse through the wall to check for anyone around. Finding no-one, his mouth dropped from the wide grin to a small smirk. His eyes widened until they were normal sized again.

Looking at the paper with the cell number Gaara was in written on it, Naruto stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered down the corridor to cell 48C. Anyone watching the orange clad boy would have been surprised at his demeanour. Instead of the hyperactive idiot with the almost clown like grin, there was a young man with an aura of intelligence smirking and sauntering down the corridor observing the area around him and memorising it for future use.

Gaara looked up as the door to his 'room' opened. It was a bare room with a bed, table and two chairs in it. The walls were grey and dull with the odd suspicious dark red stain on them. Truthfully, Gaara was bored and would welcome an interrogation purely for something to do. Instead of an interrogator it was Naruto, the boy who helped give his life purpose again, even if it was marred by his siblings' betrayal. Deep down, he couldn't blame the two. He had made their lives difficult and terrorised them, it made sense they would abandon him to the enemy. He still wanted to hurt them though. Wanted to make them suffer. Wanted to hear the world scream like he used to. But then again, he wanted to have precious people and love too.

There was something off about Naruto though. He didn't look so happy go lucky and he wasn't smiling like he normally did.

"So, Gaara my friend. I've been thinking that I need to get outta this village y'know? I mean, excluding my mission to Wave a month or two back I've never left. I could really use a nice vacation around the Elemental Countries. And I'd like to take you with me." Naruto drawled in a lazy manner quite unlike his normal hyperactive babble as he moved to the chair by the table and slumped down on it.

Gaara was silent, staring at the blonde boy before him. Now that Naruto wasn't screwing his eyes into slits anymore, Gaara could see a glimmer in them. The glimmer he himself had, the desire to bite back at a world that had given him nothing, to hear people scream and brought to a low like they did to him so many times. A gleam of loneliness and anger at the world. And a little twinkle he _didn't_ have; the twinkle of genius that can't be contained. Genius that drove it's possessor mad in the middle of the night because it never stopped. That knowledge that you are so much intelligent than people think you are and using that to your advantage.

Gaara felt a small sense of awe looking at Naruto. He was a psychopath. Naruto was a psychopath and _they didn't know it_. To be able to act like a somewhat normal member of society so flawlessly that even his fellow psychopaths didn't notice, Gaara was jealous. Naruto would go far, especially as he was capable of restraining his violent urges and could actually care for people to some degree even if he couldn't empathize with them.

"Well, Gaara? Are you gonna come or not 'cause if you are then we're gonna need to go soon before the guards get suspicious about how long I've been here." Naruto spoke lazily as if he wasn't on a time limit.

Gaara gave a nod to the taller boy. "That sounds like fun." He stated steadily.

Naruto's smirk became more pronounced. "Perfect. I'll meet up with you in a day or two. I need to make plans and get money for a change of outfit. I mean, attention grabbing neon orange ain't all that good for running away and hiding, y'know."

Lazily, Naruto stood up and turned to the door. Opening it he gave a vague wave of the wrist to the crimson headed boy. "Guess I'll be seeing ya later."

Wandering around the village with his 'I'm the idiot of my village and never going to amount to anything so just laugh at me' mask on, Naruto contemplated what he had just done.

'_Well, that was productive. Gaara is willing to leave and I've gotten leeway to find the information I need to get to the other Jinchuriki and get a map and all the other stuff we're gonna need. Only problem is getting money to buy the clothes.' _Naruto's smirk widened. _'Oh gee, I wonder where I can find a load of someone else's money.'_

The sun shone high above him as Naruto headed to the most expensive clothing store, it had the best quality stuff so Naruto figured he may as well spend most of other people's hard earned money. Double checking to make sure it was a civilian store; Naruto ducked into the alleyway beside it and did the handseals for the Henge. He changed into a young dark haired boy his height with light brown eyes and generic features. Naruto knew the way the village worked. Shinobi never even bothered with civilian places and civilians were blind to shinobi tactics.

Slipping out of the alleyway, Naruto walked into the store. He went over to the trousers section and picked out a few sets of navy jeans with silver swirls near the hem. He then got several short sleeved t-shirts mainly in various shades of blue with silver swirls in the middle. He then chose several copies of a grey hoodie with silver swirls patterned on it. Estimating Gaara's sizes, he picked out several black, navy and red jeans and long and short sleeved t-shirts of the same colours. He also picked out a black military style denim jacket with lots of pockets. He picked up four sets of shoes; two for him and two for Gaara. His boots were silver with white laces and his sneakers black with gold laces. Gaara's boots were black and his sneakers were a light blue colour.

Pausing on the way to the checkout, Naruto looked at the accessories section. There was a pair of bright red ski-style goggles that Naruto was tempted to buy for Gaara and then decided with a shrug that it couldn't hurt. What really tempted him though was the oversized black top hat with silver swirling lines all over. Eventually, Naruto decided that it couldn't hurt to indulge for the first time in his life.

Picking up the hat and goggles, he reached the checkout. The girl on duty was sitting at the till reading some book. Naruto had to clear his throat a few times before she noticed him. She scanned the items he wished to buy.

"Ok, that'll be 76,400 ryo please." The girl at the till said, clearly bored out of her mind.

"No problem." Naruto smiled, handing over the money and taking his bags. He walked out of the store and back into the alleyway where he undid the Henge and sealed the shopping bags into a scroll. Moving quickly through the village, Naruto bought as many supplies as he could; using the Henge and pickpocketing as many people as possible along the way. Every little helps after all.

Stopping at the library where they weren't allowed to stop him entering, Naruto headed over to a secluded area and made several shadow clones. This next part was going to be the hardest. He gave every shadow clone a sealing scroll and gave them instructions to look through every book category and pick everything useful, he was going to be reading over the beginners basics so that if anyone he knew came by they wouldn't be suspicious. Naruto had learnt a lot of the information during his visits over the years but it was better to have an expert's teachings on hand just in case.

Two hours later, Naruto wandered back out of the library and headed home. Ignoring all the graffiti scrawled across his wall and front door Naruto entered his apartment. Closing the door, he snickered quietly to himself for a few moments before checking the time.

Seven o'clock. Not bad but he was going to have to sort out what he was going to take from his apartment and what he was going to destroy. There was a big ceremony for the candidates who became Chunin tomorrow. And it just so happened that every genin _except _for him and Gaara were being promoted. Naruto rolled his eyes.

'_Reeeaaal subtle there Councilmembers. There was no way anyone was going to notice that the two jinchuriki were going to be excluded. Tch, just how good a job did I do with my idiot act?'_

Of course, if things had been different then it would probably be just Shikamaru getting the vest and it would be informal and rushed. But of course_ Uchiha-sama _would get a big ceremony for his inability to even show up on the pitch in time.

No, Naruto _wasn't _bitter about it at _all,_ why would you even _think_ such a thing? Well, there was a plus side to it. The ceremony would be at least three hours long with a compulsory festival afterwards which would last all day. Or in other words, enough time to bust Gaara out and take a bit of _compensation_ from the dear citizens of Konoha. And they could even have up to a day's head start on the search parties. Maybe even more!

Naruto grinned. Konoha had no idea what was coming…

The next morning dawned bright and early. Sakura got up and started washing her hair for Sasuke-kun. She couldn't believe that she'd cut it; what _had _she been thinking? There were plenty of ninja with long hair and some of them were men. Besides, Sasuke-kun liked girls with long hair. She couldn't wait to see him again. If only she had made it to the exam finals then she could have been with Sasuke-kun without Naruto-baka! Now she was going to be stuck with the blonde haired idiot and have him pestering her for a date all the time. Oh no! It was half eight already! She had to move quickly or she wouldn't have time to make herself beautiful for Sasuke-kun's ceremony at nine!

Elsewhere, Naruto was crouched on the roof of the building opposite T&I, wearing his neon orange jumpsuit for the last time with a black backpack resting beside him. Everyone had to be at the ceremony for the last Uchiha's triumphant promotion to chunin, the council made sure of that by making it compulsory and threatening demotion to those that skipped. Now he just had to wait for the night-guards and the members of the department who came in early to leave. Just another half an hour or so and then they would be on their way to freedom. After a couple of stops of course.

Sasuke smirked. Once he was a Chunin, the council would give him access to more of the power he needed to defeat That Man. And he would be free of the dobe and pink-haired fangirl once and for all. Now nothing was stopping him from becoming stronger. He would miss the training sessions true, but he had to get stronger to defeat _him_. Once _he _was defeated, he could spend the rest of his life relaxing and being with his team.

Shikamaru yawned. This whole thing was too troublesome for his taste. He did notice how all the genin aside from Naruto and the freaky redhead from Suna were getting the Chunin vests. Vaguely he recalled what Naruto had said before Gaara had revealed the Ichibi was sealed inside him.

"_I've got a real monster inside of me!"_

Shikamaru frowned. There was something wrong with this whole situation.

Neji was frowning. He wasn't sure what the council was doing but he knew they were up to something. He had lost his match badly and displayed none of the skills and traits required of a Chunin but he was being promoted and Naruto-san wasn't. What was going on?

Gaara waited inside his 'room'. Naruto would come soon and then he could be free from Suna and being a weapon once and for all. _Not long now, just wait patiently._ The mantra ran through his head constantly. _'Just a little longer and then I'm free.'_

All eyes watched the clock waiting for the big moment, the moment when all the plans would begin. Less than a minute to go.

_Fifty seconds…_

The council members ran through the speeches they were going to give one more time.

_Forty seconds…_

The civilians not yet at the arena began to run.

_Thirty seconds…_

The soon to be Chunin shifted in their seats anticipating.

_Twenty seconds…_

Kakashi settled into his perch for the ceremony on guard, for some reason he felt like something world shattering was going to happen.

_Ten seconds…_

The ninja who had gone to T&I headquarters to get work done before the forced public holiday fled the building to make it to the arena. On the roof of the building opposite, Naruto tensed in preparation.

_Three seconds…_

Naruto blinked.

_Two seconds…_

Naruto shouldered his backpack.

_One second…_

Naruto and the genin about to take part in the ceremony took a last steadying breath.

The clock in the arena burst forth with the bright, triumphant celebration music saved for special occasions as the crowd of eager civilians and ninja forced to attend broke into applause. In the deserted village, Naruto leapt of the roof of the building he was on and entered T&I. Stopping by the guardroom to pick up the keys.

The guardroom was a mess. Paperwork and takeout containers everywhere, the place stank like it hadn't been cleaned in a month. Picking his way over various office items, Naruto stopped on occasion to lift whatever money or sellable items he could see, sealing them into one of the empty scrolls in his bag. He lifted the keys and left the room.

Moving quickly through the corridors he had memorised during his last visit, Naruto raced to 48C and opened the door, entering the room and closing it behind him.

"Alright Gaara? The ceremony is gonna go on for the next three hours and then there's a public holiday and festival. And 'cause it's for their _precious_ Uchiha attendance is compulsory for everyone. So what we're gonna do is this; first we're gonna get changed into the stuff I bought yesterday and then we're gonna take a quick trip through the village and stop off at some people's houses to collect stuff and then we're gonna head up to the Land of Waves and figure things out from there, ok?" Naruto drawled as quickly as he could.

Gaara nodded and looked apprehensively at the scroll with his clothes that Naruto brought out. A few moments later the two were dressed. Naruto was wearing the silver boots, navy jeans with silver swirls at the hem, a blue t-shirt with swirls in the middle, the grey hoodie with silver swirls and the oversized black top hat with silver swirling lines on top. The final effect was somewhat hypnotic with the silver clashing with the brilliant golden yellow of his hair. Gaara was wearing the black boots, black jeans, a red t-shirt with dark coloured craggy lines running all around it and the black military jacket. Picking up the red goggles, he raised one non-existent eyebrow at Naruto before shrugging and slipping it on, using it to push up his bangs and cover his 'love' tattoo.

Grabbing their old clothes, Naruto placed them on the floor and then ran through the handseals for a fire jutsu. Once he was sure the eyesore of his idiot act was obliterated along with Gaara's old outfit he turned back to the pale boy.

Naruto's smirk became more pronounced. It was time to go. Quietly, they retraced Naruto's steps and snuck out of the building. Moving quickly through the silent village Naruto came to a stop outside of Sakura's house. Carefully, Naruto pulled out a hairpin and picked the lock. He slipped inside and grabbed some of the money and sellable items he could find as well as the food being careful to replace all the items he moved back to their places and to leave some money so they wouldn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Repeating this process at the homes of every store, restaurant and stall that ever overcharged him or sold him faulty goods as well as the actual businesses themselves. Soon the two Jinchuriki had a significant amount of money, stuff to sell and supplies. They then did the process in the houses that the council members owned.

Finally, two hours after the beginning of the ceremony, the two jinchuriki stood outside the Uchiha Clan Complex. Grinning, Naruto turned to Gaara.

"This is it Gaara, the motherload. The Uchiha's had money, antiques, precious stones, jewellery, ancient weapons and best of all, an entire library full of clan secrets and exclusive jutsu that they copied." He pointed to a building set a little way away from the rest of the complex. "Right, we don't have a lot of time 'cause everyone has to return home to get their festival clothes so loot what you can whilst I go to the library and we'll meet back here in half an hour."

Gaara nodded and decided to ignore the way Naruto was humming 'We're off to see the Wizard' from the Wizard of Oz.

Just over half an hour later, Gaara was waiting impatiently at the gate to the complex as Naruto sauntered up the path still humming the song. He shot a lazy grin at Gaara before leading the way to the gate.

The two stopped at the verge of the gate as Naruto turned around to take one last look at the village he was born and raised – however poorly – in. Smirking, the blonde boy reached up and grabbed his top hat and did a theatrical bow.

"I thank you, Konoha, for the pathetically little care you devoted to me. One day, I shall return to repay the favour." His piece said, Naruto replaced his hat and nodded to Gaara. It was time to leave.

Grinning for a moment, Naruto leapt ahead of the smaller boy, inadvertently shoving him to the ground and pointed dramatically to the road. "Quick Gaara! To the Land of Waves!" The top hat wearing boy then sprinted down the road laughing his head off as Gaara cursed and chased after him, irate.

Sighing, Sakura made her way wistfully to the bridge that had become Team Seven's meeting point over the months. She had enjoyed the festival the night before. All the booths and stalls. It had been nice to get to wear her kimono for once as well. It felt like forever since she got to act like a normal pre-teen girl. Stopping in surprise, Sakura stared in shock at Sasuke who was standing at the bridge. But he was a chunin now! He wasn't a part of the team anymore was he?

"Sasuke-kun? Why are you here?" she asked, moving closer and playing with her hair in a 'seductive' manner whilst thrusting her chest out slightly. Now that she didn't have her beautiful long hair she had to work with what she had.

"It's tradition that genin teams stay together til they're all chunin and even then they'll work together often. Where's the dobe?" questioned Sasuke. No way in hell was he staying with a fangirl who thought she could be 'sexy' and then 'attract' him for three hours. Come on, they were twelve for God's sake! Why the hell were the fangirls even thinking about stuff like that?

Pouting, Sakura thought about it. And thought about it. And then frowned.

"I don't know actually. I haven't seen him since the Chunin Exams. Although I heard he was really close to the Third Hokage so I suppose it's not really all that surprising."

"Hn." Responded Sasuke wincing as the inevitable response followed.

"KYAA!" and thus followed Sakura babbling about how 'cool' he was and those annoying little hearts were flying around the place. How Sasuke longed to put a kunai through those damn little buggers. Flying around like that, those hearts were a danger to society! Yes, a danger to society that's it…

Three hours later, Kakashi turned up. He raised a hand in greeting and said the customary excuse before frowning when only one voice screamed 'liar' at him.

"Where's Naruto?" he asked, mildly concerned. He had a bad feeling about this.

Sasuke shrugged and Sakura pouted.

"We don't know Kakashi-sensei. The annoying baka never turned up. I swear when I see him he'll be in so much trouble!" Sakura declared, her eyes almost seeming to be on fire.

"Hn."

"KYAA!"

And thus the dynamics of Konoha's most dysfunctional team in history was restored for a brief period of time.

Meanwhile, Naruto was doing what Naruto liked doing best. Annoying people. Currently he was singing, having discovered that nothing was more torturous for Gaara than for someone to sing an irritating song. Preferably one that was as catchy and repetitive as possible.

"This is the song that never ends ̴ Yes it goes on and on my friend ̴ Some people started singing it not knowing what it was ̴ And they'll keep on singing it forever just because ̴ This is the song that never en-"

"Please stop singing Naruto."

Naruto started singing louder. "Yes it goes on and on my friend ̴ Some people started singing it not knowing what-"

"Shut _up_ Naruto!"

Naruto sang even louder. "AND THEY'LL KEEP SINGING IT FOREVER JUST BECAUSE ̴"

"_Naruto_."

Naruto started singing as loudly and obnoxiously as he could. "**THIS IS THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS ̴ YES IT GOES ON AND ON MY FRIE-"**

"NARUTO I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU DON'T STOP SINGING I WILL RIP YOU INTO SO MANY PIECES NOT EVEN GOD WILL FIND THEM ALL!"

Naruto mock pouted. "Jeez Gaara, _chill_. If you wanted me to stop singing all you had to do was _ask_."

The residents of Wave watched in surprise as a blonde haired boy in a hoodie and jeans wearing a top hat roaring with laughter was chased by a furious boy with crimson hair in a military jacket and goggles who was shouting numerous insults and threatening to rip the other's face off.

The two pounded down the 'Great Naruto Bridge' before the blonde haired boy stopped and put a hand on the other boys shoulder, dragging him back to start of the bridge where the sign with the bridge name was.

"Look Gaara! I have a bridge named after me! I'm famous!" Naruto grinned cheekily at his glaring friend. The other boy was calming down now and it had been fun to piss him off that much.

Slinging an arm around Gaara's shoulder, he lead him up to Tazuna's house.

"Aw man, just wait'll ya try Tsunami's cooking, it's great! Not amazin' or anything but still real good compared to the crap I had to make at home. Well, the stuff I made was pretty decent actually but y'know. Food cooked _for _ya tastes better than food cooked _by_ ya." Naruto drawled, shrugging lazily.

It looked like his earlier mischievous mood had worn off and he was back to his lazy unaffected apathy that seemed to be his natural state. When the blue eyed boy had awoken that morning he had felt unusually cheeky and mischievous leading to his behaviour and speech becoming similar to the old hyperactive class-clown Naruto. Naruto's guess was that since he had spent so long acting like that twenty four seven it would take a while for those habits to die away. He would probably always enjoy annoying people and setting them up for humiliation though.

Knocking on the door to Tazuna's home, Naruto leaned back and slumped against Gaara only to be shoved off irritably by the anti-social pre-teen. Gaara was fond of Naruto but not of physical contact. Before Naruto could do much more that pout, the door was opened by Tsunami who let out a squeal of joy at seeing Naruto.

She dragged the two boys in and insisted on them sitting down as she made some tea and a late lunch for them.

"Dad! Inari! Naruto's back!" she called up the stairs. This was responded with a yell of delight and thumps down the stairs as the small boy ran down and launched himself at his surrogate older brother. Tazuna followed more sedately, taking one last swig off the sake bottle he was holding.

Sitting down at the table he looked at the two boys.

"So, I take it from the lack of Kakashi and this boy I've never seen before that you've finally decided to ditch Konoha, huh Naruto?" Tazuna said, nodding at Gaara.

Naruto smirked. "Can't hide anythin' from ya can I old man? Yeah, all right. I've ditched and Gaara here agreed to come with me. He's just like me, well apart from looks but you can't have everythin' can ya?" Naruto said lazily, slouching in his chair and ducking as Gaara took a good tempered swat at his head.

Tazuna snorted. "Well, good for you kid. If they treat you anything like those little brats that came with you did then you're better off without 'em. God, I thought I'd never get the ringing out of my ears from that pink haired girl's screaming and the little brooding emo kid, jeez. I'm still tryin' to get the angst outta my ceiling."

Naruto let out a snicker. "I know exactly what ya mean old man." He then mimed a toast to Tazuna.

Gaara had a sudden insight into why Naruto liked _this_ man so much.

Back in Konoha, said teammates were beginning to get annoyed. They had been waiting _four _hours for Naruto to turn up and it had started raining half an hour ago.

"Alright, let's go to his apartment. He's obviously more affected by the death of the Third than we thought." Kakashi declared to Sakura and Sasuke who by this time were furious with the blonde and were happily anticipating exactly what they were going to do to him once they found him.

Wandering up the stairs of the building, Sakura began to feel her anger fade away. The building was decrepit with age and there was insulting graffiti all along the floor with Naruto's apartment in it. Unknown to her, Sasuke was thinking along the same lines. Obviously as an Uchiha he would get special preference but it was just dawning on the dark haired boy that Naruto had been an orphan since _birth_. He was also pretty sure that other orphans who lived by themselves lived in better places that this.

Stopping at the door, Kakashi rapped on it, waiting for the impatient shout that showed the village pariah was coming. It was silent. Kakashi knocked again, feeling a wave of unease steal over him. There was something very wrong about the whole situation now. Fearing the worst, Kakashi picked the lock and swung open the door. Terrible images of Naruto self-harming or sitting in depression filled his mind's eye. As the door slowly opened, the memory of finding his father after the man committed suicide flashed through his mind.

What he saw was, in some perverse way, _even worse_. The apartment, that was always filled with mismatched furniture and scribbled notes to motivate the orange loving genin, the bright and cheerful pictures and scrolls scattered all over the place, the brightly lit rooms and kitchen warmed by its constantly running appliances, was _empty_. There was nothing left. Only the bare rooms and in-built features. The lights were out, the appliances were turned off.

Team Seven scoured all over the apartment but there was nothing there. Wherever Naruto was, he wasn't here. Panicking, the three remaining members of Team Seven decided to check around Konoha for any sign of the loud blonde.

Said blonde was finishing up his cup of tea and wrapping up his story for the three Wave residents who were kind enough to let him live in their home.

"So, that's what you've been up to. Well, you certainly make your life interesting. I imagine that with this rain and all, when Konoha realizes you're not in the village they won't be able to track your scent all that well. A blessing there." Tazuna said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah, I guess you're right there. If you don't mind, could Gaara and I check out a room?" ask Naruto, still slouched lazily in his chair.

Getting the approval he sought, Naruto dragged Gaara up the stairs to the room he'd stayed in the months before on his mission with Team Seven. Closing the door, he turned to look at his bewildered companion. Gleefully, he rubbed his hands together.

"Alright Gaara, so I didn't tell you all of the plan in Konoha 'cause we were on a time limit. Now, what do you know of the other Biju?" He drawled, flopping onto one of the beds.

"They are sentient chakra constructs that can be contained within human children, each has a different number of tails and therefore a different level of power and they were distributed throughout the Elemental Countries' major powers over seventy years ago."

Naruto grinned, "Absolutely correct!"

Gaara took one look at the manically grinning blonde and had a horrible feeling he knew exactly what the plan was.

"You want to go to every major country and convince the jinchuriki there to join us don't you?" He asked, resigned.

"Yep! And then," Naruto continued, grabbing his bag and pulling out a scroll. He unsealed to reveal a massive, detailed map of the world. "We're gonna go here." He pointed to the top of the map, right in the middle of the large expanse of ocean.

Gaara quirked his non-existent eyebrow. "And why do you want to go there?" He questioned.

"I'm glad ya asked. This here is the largest and most dangerous ocean in the Elemental Countries and is the only boundary that isn't a physical landmark. No-one's ever made it across to find out what's on the other side. If we can cross it, we'll be free forever! And who knows, maybe there'll even be other countries there. What do you think?" Naruto drawled, his eyes betraying his excitement.

Gaara frowned, contemplative. _'It sounds good and could be a viable option. If no-one has ever crossed it then we would indeed be safe from the shinobi that will eventually be sent to search for us, true. But it is a dangerous ocean and there's no guarantee it leads anywhere.'_

"I think you're insane." He stated finally.

Naruto grinned. "So that's a yes then?"

"Absolutely." Gaara smirked. _'Naruto's gotten the two of us this far. And after all, _normal_ non-insane plans are so boring.'_

Kakashi sighed exasperated. It was now late in the afternoon and they still hadn't found any leads on where Naruto was. And it had been raining for the last four hours. Shrugging, Kakashi dismissed the two drenched pre-teens and watched them go home. Where did Naruto go? He liked Naruto but the boy wasn't the most intelligent. The last time he saw the orange clad genin, Naruto had been fuming about the Sand sibling's betrayal of their brother.

Kakashi paused. There was an idea. Perhaps Naruto was staying with his fellow jinchuriki in the foreign boy's time of need. Nodding to himself, Kakashi set off towards the T&I building. He was going to give Naruto such a lecture when he found the boy.

The secretary smiled at Kakashi as he entered. "Hatake! Good to see you. How can I help?"

"I'm looking for Naruto." The woman sneered.

"Oh, him. He came to visit that Suna brat a couple of days ago. Left a little while after and hasn't been back since. Why are you looking here?"

"He didn't turn up to training this morning and when we went to look for him there was no sign. We checked all around Konoha but couldn't find him. I thought he might be with the Suna boy but apparently he's not. May I go to see Gaara though? Naruto might have told him something that could help us track down his latest hiding spot."

The secretary shrugged, "Sure, go ahead. We don't have any other prisoners at the moment so there's not much going on around here. I'll call a guard."

She got up and headed to the guard room. "Hey Mitoshi! Kakashi's here and wants to see the Suna brat!"

Heading back to the reception, she was followed by a dark haired man with emerald green eyes of average height. Mitoshi raised a hand in greeting.

"Yo, so you're here to see Gaara huh?" He asked as he led Kakashi through the door to the maximum security cells.

"Yes, my student Naruto has gone missing and I think maybe he could give us some information that could help lead us to the ever more elusive brat." Kakashi said, pulling out his little orange book.

Mitoshi laughed. "Naruto is great at hiding isn't he? Highlight of my day used to be trying to catch that kid after one of his pranks. You don't get many challenges once you're an ANBU but man! That kid can _run_. Real ray of sunshine there. Don't think I've ever seen him stop smiling. Kinda weird in a nice way. Here we are, 48C. In we go…" Mitoshi's voice trailed off.

The room was fairly typical for a room in T&I. Dull grey walls with the occasional old blood stain for ambience, minimal furniture, no windows and a single flickering bare light bulb overhead. It was also empty.

"What the hell! He was here yesterday, I checked in on him just before the ceremony! How could he have disappeared?" Mitoshi began to panic.

Kakashi bit his thumb and cycled through the handseals for a summoning. There was a puff of smoke and then Pakkun was sitting on the floor.

Ignoring Mitoshi's 'Oh! Good idea!' Kakashi crouched beside his summon.

"Pakkun, can you tell me what scents are here and how old they are?"

Pakkun smelt the air, checking for scents. "The Suna boy's scent is here, over a day old. And Kakashi," Pakkun paused, hesitant.

"Yes, Pakkun?" Kakashi asked, worried.

"Naruto's scent is here too and it's exactly as old as the other one."

Kakashi froze. Naruto had been here and left at exactly the same time as Gaara? And over a day ago, would have been during the ceremony. Damn it! Over a day's head start and with all the heavy rain there had been in the last few hours, tracking the two boys would be impossible. He cursed.

In the bedroom of Tazuna's house in Wave, Naruto was staring at the map in contemplation. He was trying to decide where to go first. Mulling it over, he decided.

"Hey Gaara," He got a grunt in response, glancing over he saw the boy was reading a fantasy novel Naruto picked up from the house of one of the Konoha civilians. "I was thinkin'; we should stay low for a while. Make it difficult for Konoha to find us, so I thought we could head to Kiri who aren't allied to Konoha and are less likely to have received reports about us. Also, they're in the middle of a civil war so they won't pay much attention to us and if we can convince the Mizukage who I'm certain is the Sanbi jinchuriki then they won't be fighting anymore and can retake their position for missions and take away a chunk of Konoha's economic income."

Gaara was silent for a moment, looking at the grinning Naruto before saying slowly, "You've been planning this for years haven't you?"

Naruto pouted. "Damn Gaara! You're smart." He shrugged lazily. "All right, I've been planning to sail that ocean since I was four and I wanted to have the other jinchuriki on my crew since I figured out I was one when I was eight. It took forever to get enough information but I'm 98% certain I know who the others are. You were the only one that I couldn't find. The one loose end."

Gaara quirked his eyebrow, expression incredulous. "Lucky break for you then."

"Yep, incredibly lucky. I still can't believe it worked out so well!" Naruto exclaimed, eyes gleaming with the extended shock.

Mitoshi gone to report the disappearance of the two jinchuriki to the council members whilst Kakashi raced to the gates with Pakkun in tow. There might be some traces of the scent left.

"Well Pakkun?" He asked as the gates came into view.

"It's very faint and in some places has disappeared but the two definitely passed this way." The small dog replied.

'_Right then, there's still a trail of some sort so we'll be able to track them to some extent.'_

"Sensei!" The shout caught Kakashi's attention. He turned to see Teams Eight, Gai and Ten and their respective teachers racing down the road. His own remaining students leading the way. It was Sakura who had shouted to him.

He stood and waited as they stopped beside him, the children doubling over panting for breath from having to run as fast as they physically could to keep up with their teachers aside from Team Gai.

"What are you all doing here?" Kakashi questioned lazily, inwardly thankful for the chance of some assistance.

"The council summoned us and told us we had an emergency mission to locate Uzumaki and the boy from Suna." Responded Kurenai.

"Gaara I can understand but why do we need to find the dobe? It's not like his disappearance will make much difference to the village." Sasuke stated callously.

The shinobi there stared incredulously at him before TenTen coughed.

"You weren't there for his Chunin Exam Finals match were you?" She asked delicately.

"No. What does it matter?" Sasuke asked arrogantly.

The rest of the rookie nine present were still in shock of his open dismissal of one of their classmates. Even Sakura had shaken off her adoration for a few seconds.

'_Sasuke-kun, you sacrificed yourself for him in Wave and he avenged you. All those hours together training, did Team Seven mean nothing to you?'_

Inwardly though, Sasuke was panicking. He couldn't afford to feel scared when a teammate went missing; if he cared too much he might consider Naruto his friend and then the temptation of the Mangekyo Sharingan would start to beckon. He had to be callous, if he acted like he didn't care for the blonde then eventually he wouldn't and Naruto would be safe from any attempt to kill him for power.

The jonins stood in silence for a moment before Gai clapped his hands together.

"We won't find Naruto-kun hanging around like this!" He ignored the flinch from what was left of Team Seven at the affectation added to the Naruto's name. "I propose that each of our teams will choose a direction to search in. One team will cover the North and North-East, one will cover the East and South-East, another one will cover the South and South-West and the final one will cover the West and North-West. Shall we draw lots to decide?" He asked, raising one gigantic eyebrow.

Naruto waved to Tsunami cheerfully. He bent down to hug Inari before turning to Tazuna.

"You aren't gonna tell the Konoha folk we were here are you? Even if it's Team Seven?" He asked, hat tilted slightly to the side.

Tazuna laughed. "Don't worry about it kid. After everything you've done for us there's not a single villager who'd betray you. Just get going and don't worry about it. You deserve freedom and after so many years trapped in that hellhole of a home town, you deserve the chance to travel." He patted Naruto on the shoulder. "Now get going! Your friend is starting to look real antsy!"

Looking over his shoulder, Naruto could see that Gaara was indeed looking anxious, standing by the road that would lead them across to Kiri. Laughing, he waved one last goodbye to the various villagers standing around and raced to Gaara, giving him a friendly punch on the shoulder and shouting 'Tag!' and racing off into the distance. His red haired friend followed behind him and, now used to the familiar action of trying to catch Naruto as they ran, started to laugh as well.

Smiling, Tazuna stood and watched as the two boys who grew up too much, too fast began to discover the joys of true laughter and play.

And so, with two boys with old eyes playing like young children across the miles; the journey of the most incredible shinobi, legendary pirates and greatest people to walk the earth began. Many trials lay ahead for the future family of jinchuriki. Their misadventures were legendary, none more so than the fabled 'Chase of Kiri'.

**Sorry for the weird ending but after a chapter like that it felt natural to finish on that note. I know that some of you are probably confused and wondering when the One Piece stuff will come up. I've decided to go a different route with this crossover and will be introducing the other world later on in the story. The next few chapters will focus on the collecting of the jinchuriki and their escape from the Elemental Countries. And just to clarify, everyone from Konoha believes that Gaara is forcing Naruto to go with him; having only ever seen Naruto's idiot act. They believe they are going to 'rescue' Naruto.**


	3. Chase of Kiri part 1

**So, whatever. I'll write my AN later.**

**Disclaimer: Whatever. Don't own this stuff.**

Gaara was miserable. It had never occurred to him how much he would come to hate the rain that fell in ridiculous amounts now that he wasn't returning to the desert. He definitely hadn't thought of the fact that they were going to Kiri. A village famous for _water_. But he wasn't concentrating on that, far too focused on the fact that the worst storm either of them had seen was raging and they were in the middle of it.

Naruto was also unhappy. Their clothes were getting wet and their hair was starting to plaster against their faces. The wind was beginning to pick up and the rain was getting even heavier. They had to get to a village soon. There was definitely going to be a storm that night. Pausing for a moment and straining his eyes through the lashing rain, Naruto let out a whoop of delight as he saw lights up ahead. There was a small village there! He motioned to Gaara, pointing to the lights in front of him. The stoic boy nodded and they set off.

Staggering into town, the two jinchuriki looked all over the area for a hotel or inn. Seeing no likely buildings, they began to worry. Then a door opened to the street and a woman in her late forties leaned out.

"Come on! Get inside quick!" She called, gesturing to them. Grateful they rushed inside.

* * *

In Tazuna's village, the remainder of Team Seven stumbled across the bridge and made it towards the bridge builder's house. The last few days in Hi no Kuni had been awful. The weather had flipped to its opposite. Instead of warm sunny days with the occasional light breeze, they were getting thunderstorms and lightning, lashing rain and howling gales. The weather had become even worse than that of Mizu no Kuni's this time of year.

Tsunami opened the door to see the bedraggled members of Naruto's team. Despite their behaviour towards Naruto, they were all fond of Team Seven. They just liked Naruto more. Seeing them now, Tsunami knew it was time to practise her acting skills.

"What are you all doing here? And where's Naruto-kun?" She asked, her eyes going wide. The three shinobi at her door visibly deflated. Tsunami almost felt sorry enough to tell them but remembered everything the two boys had been put through and her heart hardened.

She guided them into her house where Tazuna was waiting. They would do their best to delay them, giving Naruto and Gaara a little more breathing room.

* * *

Sitting at the table of the town's inn, Naruto finished telling the story he had fabricated to the hostess. The tale followed vaguely along the lines of Naruto and his 'cousin' Gaara had been summoned from Konoha where they'd been planning on watching the Chunin Exams by their grandfather. The hostess, Hitomi had been sympathetic.

"Oh you poor boys! That must be awful having to travel so far at your age. How heartless of your grandfather to not even let you hire ninja to accompany you for safety." She proclaimed, clearing the plates of food she'd made for the two of them when she found out the last time they ate properly.

Naruto smiled winningly at her, tilting his head and widening his eyes to give the impression of a young child. Under the table he kicked Gaara's leg, indicating to play along.

"I know; it was just so hard trying to make our way across. Nobody would give us directions or anything and just told us to go home to our parents. But Grandfather lives all by himself and we just couldn't bear to leave him alone when he was waiting for us." Naruto pushed his voice up half an octave to sound younger than he was and used the most powerful weapon in his arsenal, the puppy dog eyes.

Beside him Gaara shrunk in on himself and adopted what he hoped was a vulnerable expression, it had been a while since he had used his facial muscles for anything other than looking stern or letting out a brief burst of emotion. The landlady melted into a metaphorical puddle of goo. Within minutes, they had the best room she could offer and a promise to give them as much food as she could spare.

* * *

Sitting in the room with Gaara, Naruto raised his eyebrows in a challenging manner. Gaara sighed and then gave him a roll of notes in a non-verbal manner of defeat.

'_Really should've known better than to bet against Naruto.' _Gaara lamented.

"I guess you weren't joking when you said that you could get any woman outside of Konoha to mother you." He muttered under his breath as Naruto began to change for bed. He walked over to the window and stared out at the storm raging even more powerfully than it had an hour or two ago when they were out in it. Gaara shuddered; he hated the idea of being out in that now.

Naruto grinned across at Gaara, "I don't make empty boasts Gaara. If I say I can do something, I _can_ do it." Now changed, Naruto went to join Gaara at the window.

"Unreal isn't it? I mean, I knew Mizu no Kuni had bad weather but this really takes the cake. Still it's better than the Land of Rain, right?"

Gaara groaned at the thought. Then he saw a flash of colour outside. He felt Naruto stiffen beside him.

"You saw that, right? Do you think we should investigate it?" Naruto asked quietly.

Gaara thought about it. _'I don't really want to go out there but if that's a thief or bandit then catching them may earn us loyalty from this village like Naruto did in Tazuna's town.'_ He shrugged. "Couldn't hurt." He said just as quietly.

The two levered open the window and then slipped back outside. Of course, it was only once they were outside that Naruto realised he was out in the storm in his pyjamas.

"Damn it. Now my pyjamas are wet as well."

"You should have thought about that before we came out here."

"Shut up Gaara."

* * *

Catching another glimpse of that flash of colour, the two took off after it. It led them into the forest and then vanished into the murky gloom. Gaara turned to Naruto, mouth opening to ask where they were going to go now only to let out a surprised grunt as something smacked into him. He went flying into a tree and smacked against it, out of breath and startled. The last time he was actually hit was when Naruto head butted him in the face.

"Gaara!" Naruto called, startled.

"You shouldn't have followed me if you didn't want to get hurt." The voice was low and angry. Naruto spun around and saw the owner of the voice.

He was about eighteen years old with long straight brown hair and golden coloured eyes. His skin was moderately pale and he wore a traditional styled kimono and carried a wooden pipe. Naruto recognised him and felt like jumping in joy.

"Utakata…" he breathed, unable to believe it. He knew he was lucky but this was unbelievable.

Utakata frowned. "How do you know my name?" His eyes widened in shock, "You're a shinobi! I won't let you get away and give my location to Kiri!"

He began to blow bubbles through the pipe and Naruto cursed when one hit him and sent a shock through his body. Growling, Naruto put his hands into the familiar crossed handseal.

"Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" He created five clones and sent four of them dodging around the bubbles whilst the other clone snuck around the side and tried to blindside the other jinchuriki. Pulling out a scroll he'd lifted from the Uchiha clan library, Naruto unsealed it, revealing a long and slightly curved sword.

It was longer than Naruto was tall, designed for someone almost six feet tall. The handle was rounded and painted black with silver detailing. The way the blade had been forged left swirling patterns from where the metal cooled. The sheath was black and silver also and in the middle of the cross guard was a large round cerulean blue sapphire inlaid with gold decoration.

Naruto pulled it level in front of him. He hadn't had the chance to really study how to use it but right now he needed the reach it would give him.

Whilst Naruto was unsealing his sword, his clones were dispelled by the expertly aimed bubbles. The clone that snuck round the side leapt at Utakata, only for the older jinchuriki to duck and aim a high kick at the clone's stomach dispelling it.

Naruto then charged forward, his sword raised diagonally over his left shoulder. He channelled chakra to his legs to keep from slipping on the wet and muddy ground. He swung the oversized sword at Utakata only for him to dodge easily and swing the pipe at Naruto's face. Naruto awkwardly reversed the sword and brought it back to parry the blow whilst kicking his leg out at Utakata to try and unbalance him.

Instead Utakata flicked _his_ leg and unbalanced Naruto, causing the blonde boy to fall on the ground. Naruto only had time to let out his breath in a surprised grunt when Utakata's leg pressed into his chest, pinning Naruto down. Utakata stared impassively at the cursing Uzumaki before raising his pipe to deal a final blow.

Only to discover that he couldn't move. Frowning he looked down and saw minute amounts of sand gripping his arms and legs, holding him in place. He looked to see the red head he had knocked into the tree stretching his arm out towards him an expression of concentration visible. Annoyed, he channelled the Rokubi's chakra and broke the hold the sand had on him and threw his pipe at the boy, only to watch in astonishment when sand swirled out of nowhere and blocked it. It fell to the ground after, revealing that the pull of chakra had finally knocked the younger boy out.

"YOU BASTARD!" Utakata barely had time to register the shout before he was flung off the blonde boy. Snarling he scrambled back up to see the boy with scarlet energy swirling around him.

'_What?!'_

Naruto charged forward, taking wild swings at Utakata. Utakata snapped out of his stupor and dodged each blow carefully. The blonde's sword was lying several feet away. Utakata waited for a few more of the wild swings, before leaning to the side and hitting Naruto in the face with a high round kick. Naruto went flying backwards, the Kyuubi's chakra fading as Naruto slipped into unconsciousness.

Sighing, Utakata wandered over to the large sword and examined it. There was a very familiar crest on the end of the sword, near the hilt. The Uchiha fan.

'_So these two came from Konoha. But the red head's sand and that boy's chakra... Guess it can't be helped; I'll take them back and question them. They came from the village inn right? Shouldn't be too hard to pass this off as a bandit attack...'_

* * *

At Tazuna's house, Kakashi let out a sigh of relief due to the rain finally easing. Going outside, he summoned Pakkun and again asked him for scents. The dog confirmed that they had been that way. Kakashi felt a small surge of resentment that they weren't told about it but when he thought about it, it made sense. There was no guarantee that the two boys passed through the town whilst the townspeople were there to see them or even if the teens had been seen, the villagers were much more fond of Naruto than any other member of Team Seven.

Pakkun was still catching faint whiffs of the boys' scents and it should be relatively easy to search and investigate each town for traces of the two conspicuous boys. Sighing, Kakashi stood up and went to send a message to the other teams. They knew roughly what direction the two had gone in so far.

'_Hang on Naruto. We're coming for you…'_

* * *

Groaning, Naruto sat up on his bed in the inn. _'Hang on. How did I get back here? Last I remember was getting my ass kicked by Utakata. Damn it! Why didn't I plan ahead? In fact, why did I fight Utakata when I knew he had more experience than me and he was stronger? Oh yeah, he would kill me if I didn't. Why me?'_

"So you are awake now." Came the voice from last night. Less angry and more curious.

'_Shit. Well, it does explain how we got back here…'_

"Who are you and how could you and that other boy use those abilities?"

Naruto smirked inwardly. If Utakata was willing to find out more about them, then they were more likely to convince him.

When Gaara came around, it was a few days later. Apparently when he was knocked unconscious, his body took that as an invitation to fall asleep and Shukaku was keeping his distance from the real world to lick his wounds for a while longer; luckily for Naruto who didn't want to see the insane Biju again so soon.

Once he was awake, Naruto came bounding over to his bed and babbled about how the guy who attacked them was actually one of the people they were looking for and he was willing to go along with them across the ocean to get away from people even if he didn't like either of them too much yet.

When Naruto finally ran out of breath, Gaara spoke. "You are _ridiculously_, unbelievably lucky, you know that Naruto?"

Naruto grinned. "I know! We'll have to be careful when we get to Kiri though. Utakata is a missing nin so there's no guarantee he'd be safe."

Gaara rolled his eyes. "That's what the Henge is for, dumbass."

Naruto pouted.

"I guess if I'm going to travel with you two then I'll need to change my outfit." Came the interruption from the doorway. "But it is lucky for you two that I'm traveling with you now. You're not going to have people look at you strangely for being unaccompanied pre-teens."

"I'm a teenager damn it!"

"You don't look it."

"That's not my fault! Damn village, enabling all I could afford to eat being ramen. Do you know how much that stuff stunts your growth and development? And it doesn't even taste that good. Well, it probably tastes good when you have it as a treat but after eating it every day for years, I'm sick of it!" Naruto declared, his hair having become dishevelled from his rant.

Utakata looked mildly more sympathetic whilst Gaara was uncomprehending of Naruto's pain.

"My village tried to do that to me. I just broke whatever bone was nearest to me and they got the point fairly quickly."

"Well, I couldn't do that. You guys don't get it, being a jinchuriki in Konoha is more for the prevention of Kyuubi escaping. It's not to be a weapon for the good of the country. If I attacked a civilian or just anybody outside of a spar, they would kill me like _that_. So, I had to spend all my life tiptoeing around those bigoted idiots and pretending to be stupid."

Utakata stared at him for a few seconds in silence. "So, clothes? Or do I just walk around in this when it's become a trademark of mine."

Gaara snickered at the indignant expression on Naruto's face that Utakata was being so dismissive.

* * *

The three were standing at the outskirts of the town, Naruto and Gaara looking contemplatively at Utakata's outfit.

The brown haired boy had stopped off at the shop and gotten a new outfit. His hair had been trimmed to shoulder length. He was wearing white trainers, black slacks, a white shirt with the collar unbuttoned and a pale blue V-neck sweater over the top. If you ignored the fact that none of them had any physical similarities, they could pass for a civilian family. Sort of.

"It'll do just fine." Naruto said decisively.

"I miss the kimono but this is fairly comfortable."

"It'll make the ninja and Kiri villagers who never met you face to face think you are someone else."

Utakata shrugged, "That's something I guess."

* * *

Kakashi stumbled into a town that they'd agreed to meet up in and discuss ideas for getting Naruto back. His two cute little minions - genin, he meant genin - were following behind him. How far could a couple of kids get with a day's head start?

The town was nothing special. In Hi no Kuni, being a farmer was known as one of the most demanding but lowest paying civilian jobs. The massive country required plenty of crops but preferred to spend its money on the bigger tourist orientated cities.

As such, farmers worked long hours in boiling hot days to produce as much crop as possible and receive maybe a hundredth of what they would eventually be sold for. So all around the country you got places like this, just one of those places where farmers put buildings next to each other under the understanding that misery loves company and that they're not suffering alone.

That tells you all you could ever need to know about humanity.

Where the hell was Naruto anyway? And why had the other jinchuriki take him away in the first place? These were questions that kept running through Kakashi's mind. The thought that his third student may have left of his own violation never even crossed his mind.

Sakura trailed behind him, despondent whilst Sasuke seemed more interested in the scenery around him. Kakashi was well aware that all the Rookies blamed him for Naruto's disappearance and he had to admit they were partially right. If he had looked after Minato-sensei's son the way he had promised then it was likely that the boy would have been able to protect himself better and not be quite as isolated as he had been.

Kakashi favouring Sasuke must have been a breaking point for the young boy. Why else would he go to see Gaara? He must have desired the companionship of one who has felt his pain.

As Kakashi ruminated on his decisions, Gai spotted them and exuberantly ran towards them.

"YOSH, MY ETERNAL RIVAL! YOU HAVE AT LAST ARRIVED!"

"You say something Gai?"

"CURSE YOU AND YOUR HIP WAYS! In all seriousness, we have found a lead on Naruto-kun."

Sakura and Sasuke stared at Gai in shock at his 1800 personality turn, having never seen it before. Gai's students also looked nonplussed. Well, TenTen and Neji did; Lee was ranting about his sensei's 'Youth'.

Kakashi lowered his book. "Well?"

"We overheard a young man by a harbour talking about a blonde and red haired boy boarding a boat to Mizu no Kuni."

"MIZU NO KUNI?" Sakura shrieked in shock. Team Gai winced at the assault on their eyes whilst Kakashi and Sasuke stood passively, well used to Sakura's volume when shocked or angry. "WHAT IS HE DOING GOING THERE?"

"Maa, Sakura. Once we find him we'll know. Before then we can only follow what clues we get."

Sakura nodded sheepishly. She had forgotten that Kakashi couldn't know what went on in Naruto's head.

* * *

Meanwhile, Naruto was thinking as they walked along the path that Utakata said would take them the direct route to Kiri. Gaara and Utakata looked at one another before Utakata shrugged, indicating he didn't really care about whatever was bothering Naruto. Gaara sighed before turning to Naruto.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I was just thinking. Even though we covered our tracks, there's nothing stopping them from hearing about where we went from people who saw us."

Gaara shrugged. "There's not really a lot we could do to stop that."

"I know, it's just bothering me…"

"Well don't let it. A shinobi has to keep his head in the mission and not let irrelevant factors deter him. Even if they do hear about you coming to this country; when making enquiries they won't get any information because they'll be asking about two pre-teen boys which always gathers attention as opposed to an older boy taking a younger couple of boys on a trip somewhere which is so normal that most people don't even pay attention to it; much less commit it to memory."

Utakata stopped talking and looked at Gaara and Naruto who were staring at him in surprise and delight.

"Why couldn't you have been my genin sensei? You actually explain why things have to be done a certain way. I bet you would actually teach your genins stuff too."

"Of course. Genin are the future of the shinobi village. If they are not properly trained then the rest of the village will suffer in the future."

"Awesome! My sensei only ever taught me tree-climbing and my academy teachers barely taught me anything.

Utakata looked disgusted. "What kind of teacher gives an incomplete education regardless of the reasons?"

In Hi no Kuni, Kakashi and all of Naruto's academy teachers excluding Iruka sneezed.

Naruto shrugged. "That's what happens when you're a jinchuriki."

Gaara made a low noise of agreement whilst Utakata looked resignedly frustrated.

"So, you only learnt the tree-climbing exercise?" Utakata asked after a while of walking down the road.

"Yeah why?"

"What about you Gaara? What were you taught?"

"My sensei didn't teach me anything for fear I would try to kill him the moment he came near me."

Utakata frowned and made an irritated noise. "No wonder you two couldn't hold your own against me. That is absolutely useless. You," he pointed to Naruto. "don't rely your Biju enough whilst you," he pointed at Gaara. "rely on your Biju too much."

Gaara and Naruto shrugged.

"It'll be dangerous if we go to Kiri and you don't know enough to protect yourselves. Well, it isn't like we have a schedule to keep or anything. We can spare a few days here and there."

"Uh what?"

"Naruto, send a Kage Bunshin out. I want to find an ideal training clearing."

Gaara and Naruto exchanged glances. Somehow, Naruto got the feeling that he'd unleashed something awful on them.

**Gonna stop it there. I know I did a big lead up to a plot point last chapter but I decided to split it into two or maybe three chapters because I want to be able to go in depth on the things that are going on in between. You know; important things like training, bonding and how the hell Konoha manages to catch up to the jinchuriki in the first place. I know this is a bit shorter than the other chapter but this seemed like the right place to stop. Also I learnt how to do page breaks! I am so proud of me.**

**Next chapter will definitely have the training section and the Konoha ninja catching up to them. Depending on how detailed that ends up, the main part of this plot point will be in either that or the next chapter. I'm not too sure yet exactly how that's going to go so bear with me please. **

**Also, as for Gaara's sensei not teaching him anything; I figure it would be kinda hard to teach a homicidally psychopathic jinchuriki who kills other people to prove his worth anything. So all of the few jutsu that Gaara uses when not just manipulating his sand are ones that he taught himself. **

**It took me a while to finish this. I had about half of the chapter done and then hit a roadblock on it. Sorry about that. Also, those who are waiting for my Naruto/Sherlock story to update; you may be waiting a while, I've hit major writer's block there. It wasn't a very well planned out story in the first place and I'm getting tangled up in how to tell a certain part of the story. I'll get there eventually guys but it will take me a while and for that I am sorry.**


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